NEW CLUB GROWS IN DETROIT
'BURBS: The South Oakland Go Club of Michigan, a chapter of the
American Go Association, has recently formed, reports local organizer Bill
Phillips. A club "primarily for the beginner in the north suburbs of
Detroit,"the new group plays on Monday evenings at a local coffee shop. Details
on Monday, or check out the club at http://chapters.usgo.org/sogocomi/

TAIWANESE TO LECTURE AT
CHI CLUB: Two strong Taiwanese players studying in Chicago will
begin a lecture series in January, reports Jason Allen of the Lakeview Go Club.
Details Monday.

CHALLENGER'S CHALLENGE:
Shodan Challenge Coordinators Lee Huynh and Laura Kolb are looking for dan
players to comment games by 2007 Challenge participants. The comments will be
just for the players, NOT for publication, and will be a huge help in this
program to help players improve their game. If you're a dan player and have a
few minutes to review an .sgf file or two, Lee and Laura want to hear from you!
Email them at challenge@usgo.org

THIS WEEK'S GO QUIZ: The
Long GOodbye This week's question
honors Robert Altman -- director of more than three dozen films, including
M*A*S*H, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Nashville and this year's A Prairie Home
Companion - who died Tuesday at 81. Which of these Oscar-nominated "go" films
was directed by Altman? GOod Night, and GOod Luck, The GOodbye Girl, GOsford
Park, or GOodbye Columbus? Click here if you know the answer: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=330212370809
One prize-winner will be drawn at random from the correct answers and will be
awarded a prize from one of our fine go
vendors. Congratulations to Young K. Kwon
of Pearl River, NY for being among the slim majority of readers who recognized
that Roy Laird, who has done practically every other go job -- President,
Journal Editor, AGA Director, AGF Director, Congress Pro Liaison -- has never
directed a U.S. Go Congress. Every one of our "red herrings" were chosen by
someone, so some intros are in order. Ned Phipps is best known for being one of
the longstanding strong guys on the West Coast - but he was also the Director of
the 4th Congress in Berkeley. Paul Mathews is a mainstay of the AGA, running our
rating system, the Rutgers Congress, number 5, was his baby, along with
co-Director Rick Mott. Finally, a special thanks to Grant Franks, who stepped up
and volunteered to run a Congress when the AGA was in a real bind, and did not
have a site. In less than a year he put together the terrific Santa Fe Congress,
the 14th, in 1998.- Go Quiz Editor: Keith L. Arnold, hka

LETTER FROM JAPAN: Goodbye,
The Congress I Love By Noriyuki Nakayama
6P I participated in the US Go
Congress this year as I have for last 21 years. The US Go Congress, which
started in 1985, could just as well be described as "the US Open Go Festival."
Participants include players from European countries, Japan and many other
countries who love this "Festival" as well as go enthusiasts and go maniacs from
every corner of the United States. In this sense, the US Go Congress is quite
different in nature from Japanese go seminars. While go seminars in Japan
usually last at most two nights and three days, the Go Congress runs eight days
and the one in Europe lasts for two weeks. For many participants, these events
are a vacation involving spouses and other members of the family. Many wives and
children learn go and participate in events like Pair Go, the 9x9 tournament and
Kid's Go. The number of participants increases dramatically during the Congress,
which marks the biggest difference from these kind of eve nts in
Japan. The Congress venues usually
offer swimming pools, tennis courts, golf courses, hills and forests for
picnicking and trail-walking. However, spending eight days in the world of go
lures almost everybody into playing, like Emi Redmond, oldest daughter of
Michael Redmond and Shen-shen Niu, who participated last year as 20 kyu but this
year played as 2 kyu and ended up with 3 wins and 3 losses. The 2 kyu in U.S.A.
would match at least amateur 2 dan in
Japan. The Congress this year was
held at Black Mountain in the state of North Carolina. Of the past 21
Congresses, this was probably the most rural, held deep in the country, with
crystal-clear streams flowing through the forests which held the buildings
housing this year's Go Congress, owned by the YMCA. The Y's Christian daily life
rules, including no alcohol, no smoking and no TV leave all kinds of time to
play Go, so this must be the heaven for the serious go enthusiasts.
Participating professionals
included Michael Redmond, Shen-shen Niu, and Akihide Murakami from the Nihon
Ki-in. The Kansai Ki-in sent three pros including Chen Kaei 9P and Ryo Maeda 6P
who had a super-busy schedule teaching young players, as he has been doing every
year. Many countries now send go pros including Korea and China, creating a kind
of go teaching international competition. I have been engaged in activities to
introduce and popularize the game of go in the USA before US Go Congress was
organized, but unfortunately, this year's visit will be the last one due to my
wife's health problem. I know that I will miss the Go Congress and my friends
there very much since I have started this journey when I was 49 and it has
lasted a full quarter-century since
then. On August 19, 2006, my last
lecture started after all the Congress events were finished. It had become a
kind of Congress custom for me to present a lecture as the final event but this
year's -- literally "the last lecture" - attracted most of the approximately 250
people at the Congress. In the standing ovation which lasted long after I
finished, overwhelmed by the emotion, I could not find the words to say Goodbye
Go Congress, Goodbye America, Goodbye my dear American go friends! -
From the October 9, 2006 edition of the Nihon Ki-in's weekly Go magazine,
translated by Frank Fukuda and edited by Chris Garlock.

MY CORNER: World Wide Go!by
Mike Lash, AGA
President Recently, an unusual
coincidence of international events gave the AGA an opportunity to thoughtfully
create, and put into action, a strategy for improving our existing relations
with three major foreign go associations simultaneously. Dae Yol Kim visited
Seoul, Korea with Eric Lui to attend the 1st Prime Minster's Baduk Championship,
organized by the Korean Amateur Baduk Association (KABA). As the AGA's
ambassador, Dae held extensive talks with officials from the KABA about its
recent inception and escalating success, as well as the Hankook Ki won, the
Korean professional go association. Both organizations host international events
in which we can participate, but AGA officials had not previously met personally
with them to discuss their business structure, their plans and our relations.
At the same time, AGA Executive
Vice President Chris Kirschner went to Hang Zhou, China with Jack Shi to attend
the annual International Cities Tournament. Hang Zhou was where I made the AGA's
first official appearance in China last year. The follow-up this year was very
valuable as Chris carried forward discussions started in 2005 and opened new
areas of business. As a result, we may see more invitations for the AGA to
participate in Chinese tournaments and opportunities for AGA players to study in
China may be possible as well. And
just last week, National Pair Go Coordinator Allan Abramson attended Tokyo with
our Pair Go team, Curtis Tang and Wan Yu Chen. Allan met with Nihon Kiin
officials to reinforce our strong relations with the Japanese Go community and
explore new opportunities for expanding the
partnership. While most of the
AGA's activities serve our members living in the United States, I hope you're as
proud as I am that we support, pursue and participate in go all over the world.
As go spreads across the globe, we are a part of that movement. The future of
international go for the AGA is bright!

GAME COMMENTARY: Holiday
Cornucopia To help you celebrate
this Thanksgiving holiday weekend, we've got a veritable cornucopia of goodies:
two game commentaries and an NHK lesson. I-Han Lui 7d gets into trouble early in
his game against Zhaonian Chen 8d in the 4th Annual Feng Yun Go Tournament. The
commentary is by Feng Yun 9P. 2007 Shodan Challenger Daniel Smith 5k gets a
lesson from his opponent and from commentator Thomas Hsiang 8d in our second
game commentary. And our very special bonus file today is the first contribution
from our new Japan-based correspondent Chris Donner, who translated Yamada Kimio
9Ps terrific lesson on "Counting Territory" from the October issue of NHK's Go
Lessons. To view the attached .sgf
file(s), simply save the file(s) to your computer and then open using an .sgf
reader such as Many Faces of Go or SmartGo. Readers who need .sgf readers can
get them for most platforms at Jan van der Steen's http://gobase.org/sgfeditors.html

Published by the American Go AssociationManaging Editor: Chris
GarlockAssistant Editor: Bill Cobb

Text material published in the AMERICAN GO E JOURNAL may be reproduced by any
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Articles appearing in the E-Journal represent the opinions of the authors and
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